Blood and Silver
by liberteas
Summary: Orphaned since he was a child, Ludwig has made it his only wish to exterminate all vampires. When a strange family moves into his village, his suspicions are aroused, but he cannot help but find a certain cheerful Italian much too attractive for his own good…


**Blood and Silver**  
a fic by thelonelylatte

::one::

Ludwig remembered only bits and pieces of the time when he was a child. It had been a very long time, after all. He remembered a boisterous voice, a shock of platinum blond hair, and shocking red eyes. He knew he had a big brother called Gilbert and three dogs, whose names he couldn't remember. He remembered the tart sweetness of cherries and dark chocolate cake, the gentle, flowing notes of a flute and the warm embrace of a brother. He remembered the heat of a roaring fire and the view of the stars from the window next to his small bed.

The last thing he remembered was a horrible nightmare. He remembered that he was seven that night, having just eaten an entire chocolate cake baked especially for his birthday and feeling a bit ill because of the indulgence. He remembered dreaming that the door creaked open, and a shadow crept in, outlined against the bright fireplace. It was a pretty lady with a pink flower in her flaming hair, aglow in the firelight. He remembered dreaming that he heard choked screams muted by fabric, a silver chain snapping as it was ripped roughly from a pale neck, sensed rather than heard the clink of an iron cross making impact with the floorboards and saw his brother's widened crimson eyes staring straight at him over the strange beautiful woman's shoulder. The lady's red curls tilted with her head as she bent over as if kissing his neck.

Then the dream dissolved into nothing but red, red, red.

He knew nothing else of his childhood other than that. His memories from then on were crystal clear, consisting only of his easy, pampered life with his older cousin, Roderich. The neighbours had come to investigate when they realised Gilbert hadn't come home for nearly a week. They'd found Ludwig feverish and delirious, and wrote off his babblings of pretty ladies with flowers in their hair devouring his brother simply as visions brought on by illness, and sent him to his closest remaining relative, Roderich. At first he had been understandably upset that he couldn't live with Gilbert anymore in his cozy house and had to live Roderich's dusty old manor, and had threw quite a few fits of temper.

But there is no child who cannot be won over with a slice of chocolate cake with cherries and cream. It also helped that Roderich was the only who believed that what he saw was real, and didn't look at him like he was crazy.

Slowly he came to realise his brother was gone, and the only chocolate cakes he could ever eat now were the ones baked by Roderich, not Gilbert. The only thing that remained of him was his iron cross, which Roderich let him keep. Ludwig wore it always around his neck, on a silver chain.

Every time he looked at the iron cross he saw behind his eyes the stunning red, red, red – the auburn curls of the woman, his brother's widened eyes, and the blood that splattered on him. And it always, always renewed his determination to exterminate the vampires once and for all. It didn't matter that the townsfolk thought him a lunatic, pursuing romantic notions of gruesome beasts who killed for sport and pleasure. All that mattered was avenging his brother.

* * *

Even from a small age, Ludwig had noticed that the sky was always grey. He'd asked Roderich once why it was like that. Roderich had paused tinkering at his piano, rare for him, and sat up in his piano bench. The late afternoon sun slanted through the high French windows of the piano room, and as usual, the sky on the other side of the glass was a bruised purplish grey. The daylight was always dull, nothing in comparison to the amazing glow of pure white light conjured up by electric lamps. Roderich had pushed his glasses up his nose, fixed Ludwig with a very serious look, and patted the space next to him on the piano bench.

"Come," he said, "It is a long story."

So Ludwig went and obediently sat down.

Roderich fiddled with his music scores rather absentmindedly before starting, clearing his throat loudly.

"Do you know what is the true colour of the sky?" he asked Ludwig, looking at him intently.

Ludwig nodded. He'd been taught at school that the sky was actually blue, although all his life he'd looked up at the sky only to see thick layers of dull grey clouds hovering above.

"Many, many years ago, when I was a little boy, this town had skies of many colours. The sky was sometimes blue, sometimes grey, like it is now, orange at dawn, purple at dusk, and sometimes even turquoise." Roderich's eyes were endlessly distant, and a bit wistful, as if he was in another world.

"When the weather was fine, the sky would be this clearest shade of clear azure, a bit like the colour of your eyes, with little puffy white clouds drifting lazily across. There were many different types of clouds – some were wispy, some were like fluffy cotton balls, and sometimes clouds were straight lines splitting up the sky. I used to love watching the clouds shapeshift and chase each other.

"And at night, when the sky was clear, this other orb of light, which we called the moon, would rise into the sky, along with millions of tiny lights that we called the stars. It is a most beautiful sight to behold. Imagine a velvet cloth of the deepest blue colour, scattered with thousands of tiny bright, sparkling diamonds, and amid them a perfectly circular disc of silver. That was how the sky looked like, with the moon and the stars.

"The moons would change as the month went by. I suppose you've been taught about it at school? Well, at its fullest it was a perfect circle, but sometimes it did not appear in the sky at all. That, we called the new moon. People used the moon to keep track of the time of year – farmers followed the lunar calendar to sow and harvest.

"It was like that for as long as I can remember, but one day, a heavily-injured dhampir – a half-vampire – came to seek shelter from a heavy rainstorm. The townsfolk were naturally suspicious and wary, and everyone turned him away. The next day, when the rainstorm had cleared, the dhampir's body was found in the middle of the town square, bled out completely. On the wet floor of the square, a message was scrawled in blood. I don't remember what exactly it said, since I was a very small boy when this happened, but I do remember that the gist of it was to curse this town to a perpetual lightless state because they had let the blood of an innocent guileless man stain the ground. From that day onwards, neither the sun nor the moon nor the stars can ever been seen from here. Only when the blood of another innocent man soaked the ground a second time would the clear skies return.

"You know how some people believe that the sun, the moon, and the stars possess magical properties and hold sway over the creatures dwelling below them. Many fled after the clouds cast their shadow permanently over this town, believing it to be a place of evil. The people still living here are the more rational type, I believe. Even so, you may have heard some of the legends and stories yourself from your classmates or teachers. The townsfolk believe that the sun is the guardian of men while the moon and the stars are the patrons of evil, darker creatures, do they not?"

Ludwig piped up at this point. "My arts teacher said that all supernatural creatures fear sunlight. The other teachers laugh at him and say he's a senile old fool. Is he right, though?"

Roderich made a thoughtful face at that. "You could say he was partly correct. Some supernatural creatures, like vampires, ghouls and werewolves don't like the sun, but it is more accurate to say that those supernatural creatures dislike being in daylight. They have no reason to fear the sun; they simply prefer not to be in it. It is true that they are drawn to the darkness of the night, where they can carry out their despicable deeds in secrecy."

"But does sunlight harm them? Does it repel them?"

Roderich shook his head firmly at that. "Anyone would be a fool to believe that the sun could protect them from those creatures. Those beasts are immensely powerful, and the sun, although a mild discomfort, pose no threat to them."

"I'm not sure if I should ask this…but how come you know so much about them?" asked Ludwig curiously, seeing how certain Roderich seemed in his beliefs and how dismissive he was of others's.

"Let's say…I have a few…special acquaintances, shall we?" replied Roderich, patting his head and glancing at his watch. "We've spoken for quite a while and I believe it's time for your revision. Go do your schoolwork, and when you're done we shall have dinner."

Ludwig knew he was being dismissed and let himself out of the piano room, shutting the door after himself. His face was calm, but he was reeling internally. Had Roderich implied that – that he knew people who were vampires or werewolves and were on _good terms_ with them? He didn't know whether to be worried or feel betrayed.

All his life he'd grown up hating the supernatural. His hatred was bred from the fact that he knew a vampire had killed his brother, no matter how everyone told him again and again that those were just feverish delusions. The more people denied his beliefs, the more he believed in them. Supernatural creatures were like aberrations, breakers of the natural order, bringers of chaos and broken families.

In his room, he laid out his books and pens and opened his arithmetic booklet, and set to work. As he started on the simpler sums, he mulled over what Roderich had said.

Certainly, Roderich hadn't seemed to like supernatural creatures very much, describing what they did as despicable and calling them evil, but Roderich had also said that they were _acquaintances_. For Roderich, that was basically a declaration of love. He was always cold, always dismissive, and Ludwig hated to admit it, but he simply acted like he had something permanently lodged up his backside all the time to everyone.

He decided that he was thinking too much about it and focused on doing the more complicated problems.

Some months later, the oppressive summer heat had arrived and Ludwig found it difficult to even breathe outdoors without breaking a sweat. It seemed that even the lightest exertion could work him up into a gooey sweaty mess and he found himself constantly having to slick back his hair which was always falling apart from his perspiration. He was working in the fields, tending to the maize and corn and wetting his shirt thoroughly when a cheerful holler caught his attention.

There were three unfamiliar young men approaching him. The one who'd called out to him was standing in front, waving enthusiastically at him, a cheerful grin splitting his face in half. He had auburn hair with a curl that stuck up from the rest, delicate boyish features and large, innocent golden eyes like a doe. _Pretty_ , thought Ludwig, before he could help it, and he immediately directed his attention to the other two to stop his thoughts from going elsewhere.

The other young man was similar enough to the first that they could pass as being twins, with the same hair with the distinctive curl and the same gold eyes but slightly narrowed in hostility. His mouth was curved in a scowl, and he looked a bit older than the first, more like a man, but was slightly shorter and his skin and hair were a couple shades darker.

The tallest of the trio too had a carefree smile on his face like the first, and his green eyes were crinkled in merriment. He had an arm slung loosely around the frowning man's shoulder, who seemed to be trying to shrug it off without success. His skin was tanned, too, and he carried himself with a confident swagger.

"Hello!" said the auburn-haired one, skipping up to him and holding his hand. "You must be Ludwig! I'm Feliciano, ve, but you can call me Feli, and this is Lovino and Antonio." He gestured to the scowling man and the man who was beaming at him respectively, before continuing. "Lovi's my brother, and Antonio's his boyfriend. And ve, it's so nice to see you-" He broke off when his brother began to sputter incoherently when he'd said the word "boyfriend" and looked positively livid.

"Are you all right, Lovi?"

"I can't believe you called – you called Antonio my b-b-boyfriend! What the hell? First off, he's not my boyfriend, and second, I don't even like him! And you, tall blonde muscular bastard, stop looking at me like that! Jeez!" And then Lovino stormed back the way he came, shouting and yelling obscenities to empty air.

Antonio scratched the back of his neck, still smiling amiably.  
"Ahh, I'd better go after him and make sure he doesn't get in trouble – Lovi has a habit of losing his way… But it was nice meeting you, Ludwig! We'll meet again, I'm sure!" And then he was sprinting after Lovino, calling out to him to wait.

And this left only Feliciano and him standing in the field.

Ludwig felt obliged to apologise for apparently looking at Lovino the wrong way.

"Um, ah, I'm sorry about…looking at your brother weirdly." He mumbled, studying Feliciano's feet.

Feliciano giggled.

"Ve, it's nothing. Lovino's always like that – so volatile. But he's a nice person underneath all that, really." His smile put Ludwig at ease, so he ventured on.

"I meant to ask you earlier, but how do you know my name?"

"Well, you might not remember, but I used to live with Roderich as well – with you!"

A puzzled frown made its way onto Ludwig's face. Racking his mind, he thought back to the blurry, hazy days of his childhood with Roderich. Dimly he recalled a girl in a green dress, who always ran from him. He'd never seen much of her, only the swish of her dress as she rounded a corner to flee, and never thought to inquire about her whereabouts when she no longer appeared at the dining table. But Feliciano was obviously male, so it couldn't have been him.

"I only recall living with a young girl…" said Ludwig slowly, trailing off when he saw Feliciano's face crumple in mirth.

"That was me, Ludwig! When I was little I loved to wear dresses. I grew out of it, obviously. But to this day I still think dresses are more comfortable than these constricting pants."

"Why did you keep running away from me, though?" asked Ludwig curiously.

"Because I was afraid you would laugh at me – and also because your face was so stern! It's still somewhat scary now, but when you were little you looked so intimidating!" Feliciano laughed at Ludwig's affronted expression.

"Oh, that reminds me! Ludwig, do you mind accompanying me to look at this lovely nest of little birds I found?"

Feliciano hadn't even waited for a reply before he'd dragged Ludwig off.

And thus Ludwig spent the rest of the day with Feliciano, work forgotten.

* * *

A/N:

First off, thank you for reading this far, I really appreciate it!  
Please do tell me what you enjoyed and what you didn't in this chapter, I always welcome constructive criticism!  
Also, since I do not have a beta, there's probably a lot of grammatical mistakes, so point them out if you catch any, thank you.

I've got around half of this written up so updates should be steady.


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